Overview

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Starting with the installation of 11 bicycle (and pedestrian) NMF counters in a number of counties predominantly in west, central Scotland, from June 2017 and through to Aug 2020, when the 63rd counter was installed in Fort William in the Highlands, and a further three in Edinburgh in Jun and Jul 2021. The snapshots now also include data from more dense networks of council-managed counters and some points along the John Muir Way.

Bicycle & Pedestrian Counters

Cyclists – Total Count by Month & Year, All Counters

Pedestrians – Total Count by Month & Year, NMF Counters

Counter Locations

NMF Counter Locations

Counter Data Summaries

NMF Counters

Total count per year
traffic mode 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 total
National Monitoring Framework (CS) bicycle 121,410 334,577 1,079,064 2,061,402 1,382,533 4,978,986
National Monitoring Framework (CS) pedestrian 321,198 910,552 3,711,360 7,784,947 8,114,645 20,842,702
Average daily count across counters
traffic mode 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
National Monitoring Framework (CS) bicycle 48 41 60 96 92
National Monitoring Framework (CS) pedestrian 221 183 293 506 764
Average daily count, overall
traffic mode 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
National Monitoring Framework (CS) bicycle 26 38 123 235 237
National Monitoring Framework (CS) pedestrian 68 104 424 886 1391
Average hourly count
traffic mode 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
National Monitoring Framework (CS) bicycle 0.5 0.4 0.6 1 1
National Monitoring Framework (CS) pedestrian 2.3 1.9 3 5.3 8

 
Focusing on the NMF counters, at end Aug 2021 nearly 5m bikes and just under 21m pedestrians had been recorded going past all counters. Average count per day dropped in 2018 for both types of counters before starting to rise again. Looking at counts overall, cycling peaked in May 2020, two months after the first COVID-19 lockdown was imposed, then continued to drop after plateauing over the summer. Despite further restrictions in 2021 cycling dropped overall. Walking, overall, however continued to rise in 2021. But even this started to decrease in April, and by June had dropped below the same month in 2020. However, both cycling and walking started to rise again in Jul 2021, both over the 2020 figures, but then fell again in Aug.

The data also includes [council-managed counters](council_counter_locations). Howeveer, the much larger number of counters and denser network in the two largest cities, Edinburgh and Glasgow skew the data, especially when looking at totals. We therefore compare data across location and time using predominantly average counts.

 

Council Counters & the John Muir Way

Total count per year
traffic mode 2018 2019 2020 2021 total
City of Edinburgh Council bicycle 11,686,881 12,081,550 12,487,914 6,442,606 42,698,951
East Dunbartonshire Council bicycle 46,603 90,008 236,291 93,527 466,429
Glasgow City Council bicycle 3,032,075 3,823,953 2,448,636 1,880,541 11,185,205
John Muir Way bicycle
33,383 75,371 108,754
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar bicycle
29,608 29,608
Average daily count across counters
traffic mode 2018 2019 2020 2021
City of Edinburgh Council bicycle 967 864 706 826
East Dunbartonshire Council bicycle 60 25 65 43
Glasgow City Council bicycle 306 261 156 141
John Muir Way bicycle
48 62
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar bicycle
20
Average daily count, overall
traffic mode 2018 2019 2020 2021
City of Edinburgh Council bicycle 1334 1379 1422 1534
East Dunbartonshire Council bicycle 7 10 27 18
Glasgow City Council bicycle 346 454 279 326
John Muir Way bicycle
10 13
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar bicycle
6
Average hourly count
traffic mode 2018 2019 2020 2021
City of Edinburgh Council bicycle 40.3 36 29.4 34.4
East Dunbartonshire Council bicycle 2.5 1 2.7 1.8
Glasgow City Council bicycle 12.8 10.9 6.5 5.6
John Muir Way bicycle
2 2.6
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar bicycle
0.5

Cycling through the Week

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Cycling – Changes through the Week

Change over Time – Cycling through the Week

Cycling through the Year

Comparing total counts for each data provider and location against averages per hour through the day… this gets more interesting looking at the data month on month, as we can see how cycling changes through the full period for which counters were installed and working.

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Average Monthly Count

Monthly Totals

Variation across Locations

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By Year

By Month

As the Seasons Change

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Monthly Counts per Location

Changes in Counts by Year

Peak Counts

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Counts vary from 0 to, occasionally, for cyclists, well over 20K within an hour and almost 70K in a single day. The tables below give a feel for when spikes occurred within each dataset; in East Dunbartonshire the peak hourly count occurs on the day with the peak count. Any or all of day of the week, time of day and month in the year, and recent weather patterns, road type, in addition to a specific event in a location contribute to variation in numbers of especially cyclists in a location.

Peak Counts

Maximum hourly count for any one counter, across data providers
Provider TrafficMode LocalAuthority Location RoadName RoadType Date Weekday Time Count
East Dunbartonshire Council bicycle East Dunbartonshire Milton of Campsie Strathkelvin Walkway Path 23 Sep 2020 Wed 14:00 24181
City of Edinburgh Council bicycle Edinburgh Edinburgh Harrison Park
03 Jun 2018 Sun 11:00 24150
Glasgow City Council bicycle Glasgow Glasgow CP Waterloo St / West Campbell St
06 Feb 2021 Sat 17:00 1122
National Monitoring Framework (CS) bicycle Glasgow Glasgow Bridgegate A-Road 04 Aug 2019 Sun 11:00 481
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar bicycle Na h-Eileanan Siar Harris Tarbet
08 Mar 2021 Mon 06:00 130
John Muir Way bicycle North Lanarkshire Dullatur NCR754, Kilsyth Path 15 Aug 2020 Sat 11:00 71
National Monitoring Framework (CS) pedestrian Argyll & Bute Dunoon Victoria Parade Path 01 May 2021 Sat 07:00 22171
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Maximum daily count for any one counter, across data providers
Provider TrafficMode LocalAuthority Location RoadName RoadType Date Weekday Count
City of Edinburgh Council bicycle Edinburgh Edinburgh London Road
20 Jan 2018 Sat 69515
East Dunbartonshire Council bicycle East Dunbartonshire Milton of Campsie Strathkelvin Walkway Path 23 Sep 2020 Wed 45979
National Monitoring Framework (CS) bicycle Stirling Stirling Burghmuir Road Path 06 Aug 2019 Tue 3758
Glasgow City Council bicycle Glasgow Glasgow CP West Street / Paisley Road
14 May 2019 Tue 2781
John Muir Way bicycle North Lanarkshire Dullatur NCR754, Kilsyth Path 15 Aug 2020 Sat 460
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar bicycle Na h-Eileanan Siar Port Ness Port Ness
11 Jan 2021 Mon 312
National Monitoring Framework (CS) pedestrian Shetland Lerwick Sletts Path (Health Centre) Path 26 Apr 2021 Mon 85732

Lerwick – Change through the Seasons

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Lerwick – Change through the Seasons

Stirling, Bridge of Allan & the Cycle Scheme

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Stirling, Bridge of Allan & the Cycle Scheme

About

About …

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Counter data may be accessed via Cycling Scotland's Active Travel Open Data Portal. The data used in the analysis presented was accessed via the API at the level of detail for both pedestrian and cycle counters operated under Cycling Scotland's National Monitoring Framework. To use the API you must register and request an API key. Alternatively, a dump may be downloaded from the portal.

Historical weather pattern data was obtained from the Met Office.